I was just in the Thunder Bay area, this week and last week, so I saw first hand how ugly some of the racist white folks are towards Aboriginal people.
The story:
A Thunder Bay woman is demanding an explanation after a teacher’s aide at her son’s school cut his long hair — an action her lawyer says is clearly assault while the Crown insists there are no grounds for charges. The seven-year-old boy had chin-length hair before the incident last month. His mother said staff at McKellar Park Central Public School were aware her son was letting his hair grow so that he could take part in traditional First Nations dancing. The mother told CBC News she was stunned when her son told her it was a teacher’s assistant who lopped off 10 centimetres of his hair. “I said, ‘Why did she do this? Did she say anything?’” said the mother. “And he said, ‘No, and after she cut my hair, she took me by the shoulders and forced me to stand in front of the mirror. She made me stand there and said look at you now.’“
A Thunder Bay woman is demanding an explanation after a teacher’s aide at her son’s school cut his long hair — an action her lawyer says is clearly assault while the Crown insists there are no grounds for charges.
The seven-year-old boy had chin-length hair before the incident last month. His mother said staff at McKellar Park Central Public School were aware her son was letting his hair grow so that he could take part in traditional First Nations dancing.
The mother told CBC News she was stunned when her son told her it was a teacher’s assistant who lopped off 10 centimetres of his hair.
“I said, ‘Why did she do this? Did she say anything?’” said the mother. “And he said, ‘No, and after she cut my hair, she took me by the shoulders and forced me to stand in front of the mirror. She made me stand there and said look at you now.’“
Reading this story, as I sit in my apartment in Toronto, I’m reflecting on the realities that I barely know and understand of what it can possibly be like for Aboriginal communities in the near- and far-North, in dealing with the white population, and having vile ugly racism at every turn.
Hearing this story now, allows me to understand to a bit of a greater extent the levels to which white folks disrespect, disregard, invisibilize and render person-less, anyone who is Aboriginal.
They have to.
Settler discomfort is so great, as well as “family secrets” of Aboriginal relatives and ancestors, that vile hatred is the only response, all the while claiming friendship and caring. As long as it’s done by white rules and on white terms. I’m truly not sure what can be done to begin to touch on this level of racism, as it’s not only imbedded in the society, laws and culture (as it is everywhere in Canada) but exists as a tangible reminder of white superiority. No generation shift will change this, as I saw this level of racism in white women under 30. Unlike the ways in which progressive values can begin to take over in larger centres, there is no possibility for that kind of change in smaller more remote centres.
Full story here.
Jebus H Cripes on a raft.
I need to warn my readers that after reading this article and the first comment by mistake (My eyes! My eyes!) my brain short-circuited and I needed to whack myself in the head a few times to get the circulation going back to my cranium.
For the love of all that is good and groovy in the world, are you people FUCKING KIDDING ME?!?!?!?!
Headline: Darker the skin, less you fit Vanessa Kirunda is the last person you’d expect to be looked down on. Poised, articulate, educated and confident, Kirunda, a black woman, can dissect and analyze why Canadians treat her differently.
Okay let’s stop right there.
1. Racism is NOT ABOUT people looking down on you! Although it’s often expressed that way, and worse. Racism is a systemic social problem that systematically [Mr Rogers voice] That’s why we call it “systemic”, can you say “systemic” byos and grils?[/Mr Rogers voice] encourages, allows and approves of violence, social discrimination, pathologizing and negative assumptions about people of colour and Aboriginal people. Racism won’t just go away once white folks just start behaving better. Although, you know, that would be a good fucking place to start you doofuses! And a start would be don’t write moronic articles like this one!
Read the rest of this entry »
I was wrong! I love being wrong under these circumstances!!
Headline: Charges dropped in racial slur school fight
[by the way, I love the use of expeditious words in headlines. A racist bullying incident has been reduced to "racial slur school fight". Let's be clear that if the charges has not been dropped the headline would be "Asian student learns that violence is not the solution to bullying" or other such nonsense. But I digress.]
The Newmarket Crown attorney’s office has withdrawn assault charges against a Keswick teen after a schoolyard fight sparked by racial slurs.
“Our office has determined that there is no reasonable prospect of conviction and it would not be in the public interest to continue the prosecution,” assistant Crown attorney Amit Ghosh told justice Peter Eourque. “The charge is to be withdrawn.”
In a prepared statement, Ghosh told the court both boys apologized to each other after the incident, in which the accused broke the other teen’s nose, and neither had had any prior difficulties with each other before the incident.
“While statements reveal (the accused) has not been a victim in the past of any bullying or hate-related comments, this verbal provocation and the assault upon him cannot be ignored when assessing the reasonable prospect of conviction,” Ghosh added.
[I'm going to do an entire blog in the near future about this whole "this was a one-time racist incident" bullshit. But my final comment of snark on this happy day is that they must have worked real hard to find a POC in the Crown's office to present this announcement to the media. I can see the white folks saying "No way I'm going out there to make that frikking announcement!" Heh heh.]
Full story here: Toronto Star article
I might have to eat my words, but it will be a happy time if I do.
From YorkRegion.com:
Chief asking courts to drop assault charges against a Korean boy after “consensual fight” between two Grade 9 students
If police officers had performed a thorough investigation of a Keswick High School fight last month, assault charges would never have been laid against a Korean student.
….
Because of his officers’ “hasty” actions, of which he takes full responsibility, he said, the chief has asked Crown attorney Paul Tait to “give serious consideration to dropping the charge” of assault against the Korean boy when it comes to court May 13.
While Chief La Barge lauded the two officers for doing what they deemed to be in the best interests of all involved at the time, he said he was “disappointed” they did not consult the force’s hate crimes unit when it was discovered a racial slur had been uttered during the fight.
“Despite the fact the slur did not give rise to the fight, it raised the fight to another level,” the chief said.
The breakdown in police work happened when officers “discounted the slur”.
“It needed to be investigated and I’m disappointed that it did not,” he added.
The chief admitted it was the actions of 400 angry students who protested the charges that brought the incident to his attention and which influenced his decision to perform a thorough investigation.
So, they’re still using the consensual fight language, which I don’t understand. What does one have to do to indicate a fight is non-consensual? Allow oneself to be pummeled?
And “the slur did not give rise to the fight” ?!?! What kind of mental pretzel contortions you doing, Chief? Racist bully called young man racist names. Racist bully punched young man, maybe because up to then the name calling had been “non consensual” and the young man was trying to ignore the racist bully?
But the angry students (all white, remember) made a difference.
The moral of the story here, kids, is always have your white allies at the ready. If you don’t, then sadly your racism doesn’t count and you’re SOL.
See, I’m still bitter, even when it looks like I’ll be wrong and I’m happy about being wrong, if I am.
Website with full text here: http://www.yorkregion.com/article/91455
Victory is sweet.
York School Board stands down, reinstates student
A 15-year-old black belt who was suspended for breaking the nose of a classmate who racially abused him will return to school Tuesday after a sudden change of heart at the York Region board.
The reversal represents a dramatic victory for the Asian student, who was suspended a maximum 20 days last week. He had received a letter from the school board – later retracted – that said his principal recommended he be expelled from all schools in the region.
The 15-year-old will return to Keswick High School this morning with the suspension removed from his academic record and his upcoming expulsion hearing cancelled, the boy’s father said Monday.
The turnabout began Monday when the student and his parents were invited to a hastily convened reconciliation session with his antagonist and that boy’s parents. At that meeting, the white student apologized for directing a racial slur at the 15-year-old and for punching him in the mouth. The 15-year-old apologized for breaking his classmate’s nose.
Full story here:http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090504.wkeswick0504…
There are still outstanding issues, however, even though I’m very happy for the young man. Here are some of my concerns.
That’s just the kind of person I am, never being completely happy, even with such a good result.
